Local government ethical standards: Committee calls for evidence

The Committee on Standards in Public Life launched a call for evidence as part of its review into local government ethical standards

The Committee on Standards in Public Life has today called for evidence about how local councils are supporting good ethical standards in local government in light of changes over the past ten years.

Committee member, Dr Jane Martin CBE who will be leading on the review, said:

“Robust arrangements to support ethical standards are needed to safeguard local democracy and facilitate the representative process, but also to ensure high standards of conduct by councillors. The Committee considers it is timely to undertake a health check of local government so the public can have confidence that the standards arrangements supporting local democracy are working effectively.

“The Committee has maintained a longstanding interest in local government ethical standards, and regularly receives correspondence from members of the public expressing their concern about this issue.

“We are keen to hear first-hand how effective councils’ standards arrangements are, in light of the substantial changes in the standards landscape for local government over the last ten years.

“We are interested in how local authorities have designed their complaints handling, scrutiny and sanctions regimes in order to maintain excellent ethical standards and how members, local government officials and the public experience them.

“The Committee would like to hear from councils and individuals who can help us understand how ethical standards issues are dealt with by local authorities.”

Based on the submissions to this review and meetings with key stakeholders, we intend to publish our findings and recommendations late in 2018.

 

From:
Committee on Standards in Public Life

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